ICANN Email Archives: [5gtld-guide]: "Economic "Study" Phase II does not make the case for new TLDs - ICANN and authors should be ashamed to present this "work" to the public"--"... Now, on to the latest "paper". Briefly, it is junk, and mere intellectual masturbation. It once again lacks any empirical rigour. It also ignores what the Department of Commerce letter of 2008 *told* ICANN to study: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/comments/2008/ICANN_081218.pdf. Take a look at PAGE 1 of that PDF!! Where is the work about whether the domain registration market is one market or separate markets? Where is the work about substitutability? Where is the work about switching costs? And so on? Is ICANN trying to pull a fast one on the public, by not even instructing its paid consultants to do the right study?? Everyone should read the ENTIRE PDF from 2008. It was very detailed. Everyone should read the original comments to the Carlton reports and to the Phase I report (not the staff summaries). There were detailed submissions, and once again ICANN and its paid consultants have failed ..."--George Kirikos (emphasis added)

Wuzhen Report on World Internet Development 2016 released | wuzhenwic.org: "President Xi Jinping addressed the gathering via video, and Mr. Liu Yunshan, Member of Standing Committee of Political Bureau of CPC Central Committee, delivered a keynote presentation at the opening ceremony. Over 1600 representatives from more than 110 countries and territories, and 16 international organizationshad a chance for extensiveand unrestricted discussions on Internet development prospects."China Presses Tech Firms to Police the Internet | WSJ.com: "Alibaba now has about 3,000 of its nearly 50,000 employees involved in counterterrorism and cybersecurity efforts ... The main speaker at the conference wasn't a technology official, but the Chinese Communist Party’s ideological chief Liu Yunshan. Mr. Liu proclaimed China to be a global opinion leader on the use of new technologies in counterterrorism ... Many industry stakeholders aren't convinced. But the presence of big western companies at the conference -- including Facebook, International Business Machines Corp., Qualcomm Inc., Microsoft Corp. and LinkedIn Corp. -- illustrated the importance of China to their businesses."
• China’s vast Internet prison | WashingtonPost.com: "The latest effort came Monday. China’s national parliament approved a cybersecurity law that can be used to restrict free speech and force foreign Internet companies to heed the demands of China’s security services. Censorship is not new in China; a huge phalanx of officials are devoted to it, harsh punishments are meted out, and the country is ringed by a content-blocking Great Firewall. But now censorship will be more fully enshrined in the legal code." See also: China adopts new cybersecurity law that has overseas rights groups and businesses completely spooked: Shanghaiist.com: "Despite widespread international concern from corporations and rights advocates for more than a year, Chinese authorities pressed ahead with this restrictive law without making meaningful changes," said Human Rights Watch (HRW) China director Sophie Richardson.

Two-thirds of all internet users – 67 percent – live in countries where criticism of the government, military, or ruling family are subject to censorship.

Social media users face unprecedented penalties, as authorities in 38 countries made arrests based on social media posts over the past year. Globally, 27 percent of all internet users live in countries where people have been arrested for publishing, sharing, or merely “liking” content on Facebook.

Governments are increasingly going after messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, which can spread information quickly and securely."

• UK has passed the 'most extreme surveillance law ever passed in a democracy': "The law forces UK internet providers to store browsing histories -- including domains visited -- for one year, in case of police investigations."--ZDNet.com

• WIPO Transparency: WIPO Adopts Open Access Policy for its Publications | WIPO.int: The World Intellectual Property Organization announced its new Open Access policy to promote the widest possible public access to its publications, furthering the Organization’s commitment to the dissemination and sharing of knowledge.

• Understanding the DNS Attacks: Convenience v Security | JDSupra.com: Understand what your online digital footprint looks like. This is just as important for an individual as for a company. Knowing this can help to prevent others from exploiting you. Understand how you look in the eyes of the hacker, and diminish or secure your assets ... The accessibility of our assets directly impacts infrastructure exploitation. If we protect our assets, we are less vulnerable. Preparedness is the best predictor of how quickly and effectively a person or a company will recover from an attack ... Evaluate all third-party providers and partners connected to your company for their security both at the outset and on an ongoing basis to mitigate the risk of attack, breach, or business interruption.

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